Is it common for people to only be able to work when under stress?

I was wondering something (this will seem like a blog at first, but there is a point):

I've been working at a clothing store for about 9 months, and the store manager for about a year.

My first day was black friday, and there were a lot of people who were new (the entire staff quit when she got hired because they preferred the old manager, and she wanted them to quit). The holidays were really hectic and busy so a lot of people quit then, so we were really shortstaffed (like 8 or 9 people worked there. We're always supposed to have 15). It took us hours to close the store, but the store manager always assured us things would get better.

And things were good for a couple of weeks. But we get visits from people higher up (like the District Manager or once the Vice President) so whenever we don't expect them, the store starts to look like sh*t and when we find out they're coming next week we have to work our asses off. We only have 5 people working at our store right now. The past few months have just been getting more stressful. The store manager always tells me I need to work with a stronger sense of urgency....I'm sorry but I'm not the type of person to stress out about Men's jeans or Women's handbags...I mean, it's just fucking clothes, it's not like I'm a doctor. I do my job and all but I can't think of pricing t-shirts as "urgent".

So given that there's always supposed to be 15 people working and we're shortstaffed 10 people, it's hard for us to keep the store looking perfect. Ever since I've been hired there, it's always been a "rough patch". It's never really been happy times. And from what I've heard, it's been like that since our current store manager got hired.

And the store manager rarely hires people for horrible reasons (Ex. she doesn't want part-time works, which is 99% of our applications; if someone has a kid they aren't getting hired; if it's a pretty girl she isn't getting hired, etc.).

The store manager was telling me how her previous jobs were hell, so it just makes me think that she really doesn't want to work in an environment that isn't stressful. Many people who quit say that they've worked at other retailers that don't worry so much.

So, is it a common characteristic among people to only be able to work under large amounts of stress? I ask because when it comes to people I disagree with (Ex. Control freaks, I am as far from a control freak as possible) I can at least understand their way of thinking. But for someone who actually wants stress, that's one thing I just can't understand.

I think some people think of stress as a challenge and they want to overcome it. So the more stress they have the better and harder they work because it is exciting to them. Well this is just my thought I hate stress so all I can do is guess hopes this helps.

I think some people think of stress as a challenge and they want to overcome it. So the more stress they have the better and harder they work because it is exciting to them. Well this is just my thought I hate stress so all I can do is guess hopes this helps.

One could argue that he's delaying working to the best of his abilities until it really matters.

When the boss tells me to work with a stronger sense of urgency, I just keep doing what I'm doing. If I work my ass off the only difference is that a Men's belt might get on the sales floor 5 or 10 minutes early...and considering how we often go an entire hour without a single customer (unless it's the weekend) I don't think it really is that urgent. So in other words, I ignore her.

Look up the Yerkes-Dodson law:basically says that stress vs. productivity is shaped like a bell curve (stress along X axis, productivity along Y)With low stress our productivity is low, median stress productivity is highest, and high stress productivity again sinks low.TL;DR - our productivity requires stress; too little and we suck, too much and we suck. It's like Goldilocks, gotta have it just right.